Pramāṇa · Search · About · API

Skandapurana 2.1.4

English (machine translation) 2.1.4

Language
English

Contents

2.1.4.39.1

Now follows the arrival of Nārada near Padmāvatī who dwells in the garden:
The Earth said: / The name of the son of Ākāśarāja was spoken by the Lord. / What name did he then give to his daughter who was not born from a womb? // 1
Śrī Sūta said: / Thus asked, Śrī Varāha, the Lord of the universe, spoke again: // 2
Śrī Varāha said: / Wise King Ākāśarāja, seeing her lying on a lotus, // 3
gave that daughter of the earth the name Padminī. / Now, when she had attained youth and was surrounded by her female friends, // 4
sporting in a pleasure-grove echoing with parrots and cuckoos, / Nārada, the best of sages, arrived there by chance. // 5
Beholding her like the goddess of the forest, he spoke thus in wonder: // 6
Nārada said: / "Who are you, timid maiden? Whose daughter are you? Show me your hand." / Addressed thus, she of most charming limbs revealed herself to the sage: // 7
"O brahmin, I am the daughter of King Ākāśarāja; tell me my auspicious marks." / Spoken to in this way, Nārada, the best of sages, then replied: // 8
Now the marks of Padmāvatī's body as described by Nārada:
Nārada said: / "Listen, fair-faced one! I shall declare your bodily marks to you. / O lady with lovely eyebrows, your feet are firm, endowed with petals of red lotuses. // 9
Your toes are even, red, and endowed with red, elevated nails. / Your ankles are concealed and symmetrical; your shanks are hairless and auspicious. // 10
Your knees are even and very smooth; your thighs are even and gradually broad. / Your buttocks are wide and plump; your hips are indeed worthy of meditation! // 11
Your navel is circular and deep; both your flanks are plump. / Your waist is delicate with three folds and adorned with a line of hair. // 12
Your breasts are plump, firm, smooth, elevated, and have recessed nipples. / Your hands resemble red lotuses, endowed with lotus lines,
extremely delicate, with reddish joints and unbroken, even fingers, // 13
adorned with a row of nails having the form of a parrot's beak.

2.1.4.39.2

Long and tender, O auspicious lady, are your arms like stems of flowers. // 14
Your back shines like an altar, slender and straight in the middle. / Your neck is red and long, and your shoulders are sloping, O auspicious one! // 15
Your face is ever cheerful, with the luster of the spotless moon. / Your cheeks resemble mirrors of gold, radiant with earrings. // 16
Your nose has the form of a sesamum blossom, O fair-faced maiden! / Extremely enchanting, resembling the spotless eighth-day moon, // 17
this forehead of yours is seen, richly adorned with dark locks of hair. / Your head is evenly rounded and endowed with glossy, long hair. // 18
Your mouth possesses teeth that shine with a smile and is endowed with bimba-like lips. / Your face is worthy of Viṣṇu: this is my settled judgment. // 19
Your navel turns clockwise like a whirlpool born in the Gaṅgā. / Indeed, you appear just like Lakṣmī arisen from the ocean of milk!" // 20
Śrī Varāha said: / Having spoken thus, worshipped by them, Nārada then disappeared. / Hearing this, her female companions said to their friend Padminī: // 21
Now Padmāvatī's departure to the flower-forest with her companions:
"Let us go to the forest for flowers; springtime has arrived! / Karṇikāras, mangos, campakas, and coral trees; // 22
palāśas, pāṭalas, kundas, and red aśokas have blossomed! / Lotuses, sindhuvāras, mālatīs, and yūthikā creepers, // 23
kahlāras and karavīras have blossomed as if in mutual rivalry! / Let us gather flowers in this delightful forest!" // 24
Having said this, they went to the forest together with the daughter of Ākāśarāja. / Gathering flowers and wandering here and there, // 25
they saw a king of elephants shining with two white tusks, / lustrous with two streams of rut emerging from the slope of his temples, // 26
lofty, accompanied by herds of female elephants, shining with dust, / his face covered with fine spray issuing from his blowing trunk. // 27
Seeing him, with agitated hearts, they took refuge near a large tree.

2.1.4.39.3

And in this interval, they quickly beheld an excellent horse, // 28
— Now the arrival of Śrīnivāsa at the flower-forest for the hunt — / white as a spotless moon, adorned with gold, / lofty like an autumn cloud endowed with a flashing streak of lightning. // 29
Upon it [rode] a dark person, possessing the radiant beauty of the god of love, / his eyes reaching up to his ears, shaped like lotus petals, // 30
resplendent with a dark topknot wrapped in extremely fine silk, / adorned with radiant earrings shining with ruby gems, // 31
bearing the divine bow Śārṅga inlaid with gold and jewels, / holding a golden arrow in his other hand, // 32
with his waist wrapped in a yellow silk cloth, having a slender waist, / adorned with jeweled bracelets, armlets, and a girdle, // 33
endowed with a clockwise curl shining upon his broad chest, / charming with shoulders gleaming with a sacred thread of gold, // 34
pursuing an elusive deer at great speed. / Seeing him, the women stood there filled with wonder, smiling. // 35
Seeing him mounted on the horse, the lord of elephants bowed his head, / raised his trunk, roared, turned around, and went into the forest. // 36
When that elephant was gone, the rider on the horse arrived there / searching for the elusive deer near the flower-gatherers. // 37
Now the conversation between the Lord and the maidens:
Approaching them, seated upon the horse, he said: / "A certain deer, spoken of as an elusive deer, came here. // 38
Was it seen by you? Tell me, O maidens!" // 39

2.1.4.39_1

Śrī Varāha said:

2.1.4.39_2

Those maidens answered him: "None has been seen by us. // 40

2.1.4.39_3

Why have you, a bearer of an excellent bow, come to our forest?

2.1.4.39_4

All the beasts living here are unslayable, O king of hunters!" // 41

2.1.4.39_5

"Depart quickly from this forest protected by King Ākāśa."

2.1.4.39_6

Hearing their words, he dismounted from his horse.

2.1.4.39_7

"Who are you, and who is this maiden resembling a lotus,

2.1.4.39_8

charming, lovely in all her limbs, with full and high breasts?

2.1.4.39_9

Tell me; having heard, I shall go to the mountain, my abode."

2.1.4.39_10

Hearing his words, prompted by the daughter of Dharanī,

2.1.4.39_11

the friend Padmāvatī spoke to the hunter whose dwelling is the mountain:

2.1.4.39_12

"She is the daughter of King Ākāśa, born from the surface of the earth,

2.1.4.39_13

our mistress, O hero, known by name as Padminī.

2.1.4.39_14

Tell us, O handsome-formed one: what is your name, or whose son are you?

2.1.4.39_15

What is your caste, where is your dwelling, and for what purpose have you come here?"

2.1.4.39_16

Thus questioned, he spoke to them with a gentle smile upon his lotus-face:

2.1.4.39_17

"Those who know ancient lore declare mine to be the lineage of the Sun;

2.1.4.39_18

whose names are infinite, purifying to the wise;

2.1.4.39_19

whom ascetics call Kṛṣṇa both by color and by name;

2.1.4.39_20

whose discus brings terror to the enemies of Brahmā and the foes of the gods;

2.1.4.39_21

hearing the sound of whose conch his enemies indeed fell into swoon;

2.1.4.39_22

a bow equal to whose bow exists not even among the immortals;

2.1.4.39_23

me, the lord of heroes dwelling upon Mount Veṅkaṭa, they declare him to be.

2.1.4.39_24

From that mountain ridge, I, surrounded by hunters as my followers,

2.1.4.39_25

mounted upon a horse, have come to your forest for the hunt.

2.1.4.39_26

Pursued by me, a deer running with the speed of the wind fled away.

2.1.4.39_27

Not finding it, looking about the forest, I beheld this beautiful lady.

2.1.4.39_28

Drawn by desire I have come here before you; can she indeed be won by me?"

2.1.4.39_29

Hearing the words of Kṛṣṇa, enraged they spoke again:

2.1.4.39_30

"Before King Ākāśa sees you and binds you in chains

2.1.4.39_31

and takes you away, go quickly to your own abode!"

2.1.4.39_32

Thus rebuked by them, mounting his swift-going horse,

2.1.4.39_33

joined by all his followers, he went very swiftly to the mountain.

2.1.4.39_34

Thus ends the fourth chapter, entitled 'Narration of the Arrival of Nārada near Padmāvatī Dwelling in the Garden, the Hunt of Śrīnivāsa, and Other Events', in the dialogue between Dharanī and Varāha in the Māhātmya of Mount Śrīveṅkaṭa, in the second Vaiṣṇavakhaṇḍa, of the Skanda Mahāpurāṇa consisting of eighty-one thousand verses.

Linked texts (1)